Freedom From Fear Fund
Recognising that we cannot separate the root causes of violence from its impact, the awardees of the Freedom From Fear Fund will work to protect survivors from violence and prevent gender-based violence from occurring.
The Freedom From Fear Fund is a €100,000 6-month fund created by Rethink Ireland with support from the National Women’s Council of Ireland and in partnership with Deloitte Ireland, Kinzen, the Drouillard Family Fund (via The Community Foundation of Ireland), SmartSimple, and the Department of Rural and Community Development via the Dormant Accounts Fund. Following a thorough selection process, three awardees were selected to participate in the fund in December 2023.
These three awardees will deliver innovative projects addressing gender-based violence in Ireland. The projects are working on goals that address the deep-rooted cultural causes of gender-based violence, while also supporting victims/survivors of violence and their families through innovative service provision. Through these joint goals, the Freedom From Fear Fund seeks to address the issue of gender-based violence from both a preventative and protective lens.
Awardees
Signposts for Positive Change
Meath Travellers’ Workshops is a Traveller led organisation which operates as a partnership of Travellers and Settled people working together to improve and enhance the social and economic lives of the Travelling Community in County Meath and beyond. Their programmes focus on Traveller history and heritage, personal development and building self-esteem, employability, culture and identity, positive mental and physical health and wellbeing. They are based in Navan, County Meath and have been in operation for more than four decades. As part of the Freedom from Fear Fund, Meath Travellers Workshops will run a campaign and series of culturally relevant workshops, highlighting the issues that are often hidden with respect to domestic, sexual and gender based violence and create the conditions that will allow the conversation to start within the community.
Empower Kids - A National Campaign
Empower Kids is a Barnardos initiative to capture and amplify the voice of children and young people living with domestic violence or abuse. Empower Kids seeks to communicate that when domestic violence occurs in adult relationships, this is a lived experience for children in the family, that children are victims in their own right, and that there is help and support out there. This project aims to shape both practice responses and public perceptions through a nationwide publicity campaign.
DAVINA Project
The DAVINA (Domestic Abuse/Violence Is Never Acceptable) Project within SAOL supports women who experience domestic sexual and gender-based violence who also use drugs or alcohol. Women who use drugs or alcohol are more vulnerable to experiencing abuse and also find it much harder to get help. They have distrust of services and many services find it difficult to meet their complex needs. DAVINA provides education advocacy and support to these women, including court preparation and accompaniment. As part of this Fund, DAVINA will deliver a bespoke, peer-informed training programme to service professionals to increase their capacity to support women with dual experience of both gender-based violence and addiction.
